Pak not averse to mediation on
Kashmir: Pervez
New York, September 22Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he was trying to give bilateralism a chance for resolving differences with India but would not mind mediation by any other country, including China.

Kerry, Bush trade barbs over Iraq
Jacksonville (Florida), September 22US Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry renewed his pointed attacks on President George W Bush's handling of Iraq, accusing him of failing to "level with the world's leaders" about the war during his speech at the United Nations.

US hostages killed following
cleric’s fatwa
Abu Dhabi, September 22
Two US hostages were murdered in Iraq in “direct response” to a fatwa issued by prominent Muslim cleric Yussef
al-Qaradawi, who should be sued by the victims’ families, an Emirati newspaper said today.

Izar shipyard workers put barricades on the rails to block the train line between Cadiz and San Fernando during a protest in San Fernando, southern Spain,
on Wednesday. Izar workers have staged protests throughout the country over the past week. Unrest among the 11,000 workers of Izar has presented the five-month-old Socialist government with the challenge of modernising the loss-making firm and saving jobs without violating European Union rules on state aid.
— Reuters

Fallen Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi is embraced by an unidentified man after she was freed from prison in Chihuahua on Tuesday. Judge Javier Pineda acquitted Trevi and two backup singers on charges of acting as accomplices in the corruption, kidnapping and rape of minors by Trevi’s former manager and ex-lover Sergio Andrade. — Reuters

Car bomb blast claims 5 lives
Baghdad, September 22
A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in a busy commercial area of Baghdad today, killing at least five persons and wounding 40, the police said.
The blast destroyed several stores and sent thick black smoke spiralling into the sky. Shards of glass and debris littered the street in western Baghdad.

Indian among 6 held in human smuggling case
Manila, September 22
A Singaporean and an Indian were among the six persons arrested in the Philippines for a suspected attempt to smuggle themselves into North America, the Immigration Bureau said today.

Volunteers
from the four political parties shout anti-monarch slogans during their second-day
protest against the King and the government at Ratna Park in Kathmandu
on Wednesday. The political parties called for the restoration of a dissolved
Parliament and the formation of an all-party government.
— ReutersIn video: Thousands march in Nepal demanding new government.
(28k,
56k)

The Prince of Wales, left, and Yusuf Islam—once known as singer Cat Stevens
—are seen in this May 10, 2000, file photo at Islamia Primary
School in London. The singer was escorted off a diverted transatlantic flight in Maine by FBI agents
on Tuesday. The Transportation Security Administration said he was denied access to the US
"on national security grounds" and would be returned to Britain.
- AP/PTI

Video

Pakistan arrests Indian fishermen for illegal fishing in
its waters.(28k,
56k)

New York, September 22
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he was trying to give bilateralism a chance for resolving differences with India but would not mind mediation by any other country, including China.

When asked in an interview with Xinhua, if he would like the US as a mediator, General Musharraf said, “This is a bilateral negotiation, we are trying to give bilateralism a chance.”

But General Musharraf added that Pakistan had no problem on expanding the talks to a multilateral status and said it would not mind mediation by any other country.

“The role that they (the mediators) can play is to ensure that the Kashmir issue will be substantively discussed and solved,” he said.

“China is a very important country in the world, Pakistan will very much like China to play a substantive role in bringing peace to South Asia, and peace to Kashmir,” he added.

“If China wishes to use its influence towards resolution of the dispute of Kashmir, it will be welcomed by Pakistan and it can do it,” he said.

On the impending meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh, he said he was approaching it with “an open mind.”

“We would not discuss solutions for substantive issues as the aim is to create and develop understanding,” he added.

“I am going with an open mind, the basic issue is to create and develop understanding. We are not going to discuss solutions for substantive issues,” General Musharraf said.

He hoped the meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly would chart out a course for future progress and confidence-building measures.

The Pakistan President said he would discuss the methodologies for the future progress of dialogue.
— UNI

Jacksonville (Florida), September 22
US Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry renewed his pointed attacks on President George W Bush's handling of Iraq, accusing him of failing to "level with the world's leaders" about the war during his speech at the United Nations.

The two rivals in the bitterly fought US presidential election traded barbs yesterday, over who can best handle Iraq's democratic transition, after Bush demanded that the United Nations should step up its help to the war-wracked nation.

Six weeks from the November 2 election, Bush told the UN General Assembly, "The UN and its member nations must respond to (Iraqi) Prime Minister (Iyad) Allawi's request and do more to help build an Iraq that is secure, democratic, federal and free."

Bush did not mention the election in his speech, but took up the battle afterward, telling reporters that Kerry "has taken so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all."
— AFP

The fate of British hostage Kenneth Bigley was rapidly turning into a disaster for Mr Tony Blair, who was attacked last night by Labour MPs for refusing to negotiate with terrorists to save his life.

Many believe the crisis, which has graphically brought home the violent struggle in Iraq, could become a defining moment for Mr Blair and his government.

The Prime Minister will face growing demands, led by former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, for the early withdrawal of British troops from Iraq because of the continuing violence.

Anti-war protestors are planning to stage protests at fringe meetings on Sunday at the opening of the conference to demand British troops to be pulled out from Iraq.

Unions and leftwing Labour MPs are also tabling an emergency motion on the main floor of the conference calling for a debate on Iraq and for troops to be withdrawn after the election of a new Iraqi Government next January.

Mr Blair had hoped to use the conference as the springboard for Labour's general election campaign, refocusing the government on its domestic agenda, including the radical proposals for improving the public services.

However, as the hostage crisis deepens, Labour criticism of the Prime Minister's support for Mr Bush on the war resurfaced last night.

Mr Alan Simpson, chairman of 'Labour Against the War', said Mr Blair should have forced Mr Bush to release the two "high grade" Iraqi women prisoners held by the Americans.

"I join the family of the hostages in Liverpool saying, "release these women. We would rather have three free people than one dead man," said Mr Simpson, the Labour MP for Nottingham South.

Mr Blair yesterday was clearly stung by the personal criticism levelled by the family of Mr Bigley who called a press conference yesterday, after the hostage takers had beheaded one of the two American hostages held with Mr Bigley. They accused Mr Blair of spending more time launching a new train with Sir Richard Branson than working on Mr Bigley's release.

Senior Labour MPs said such criticism was unfair, but the impact could be lasting and damaging.

As the deadline set by the hostage takers neared, there were signs of a shift by the Foreign Office, which distanced itself from the US Administration in an appeal on the Arab TV station al-Arabiya by an Arabic-speaking British diplomat, Mr Dean McLoughlin.

He was authorised to emphasise to the hostage takers that the Americans were holding the women, not the British.

He said, "The British forces in Iraq have no Iraqi female prisoners, not one." That marked the first clear attempt by the British Government to disown the actions of the US Government.

Abu Dhabi, September 22
Two US hostages were murdered in Iraq in “direct response” to a fatwa issued by prominent Muslim cleric Yussef al-Qaradawi, who should be sued by the victims’ families, an Emirati newspaper said today.

“In a tragic and horrific scene, the killers slaughtered the two American hostages in a repulsive way,” Al-Ittihad newspaper said, in reference to the beheading this week of Eugene “Jack” Armstrong and Jack Hensley by the Al-Qaeda linked Tawhid wal Jihad (unity and holy war) group.

The pair were taken away from their Baghdad home last Thursday along with Briton Kenneth Bigley, who also faces death.

“This outrageous act is in direct response to Qaradawi’s fatwa and incitement which permits the killing of American civilians,” the daily said.

Egyptian-born Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar, has called on Muslims to fight all Americans in Iraq, even civilians, one of his top aides said in Cairo early this month.

“Every single American who is in Iraq is an invader who must be fought,” Qaradawi was quoting as saying by his office director, Essam Talima.
— AFP

Baghdad, September 22
A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in a busy commercial area of Baghdad today, killing at least five persons and wounding 40, the police said.
The blast destroyed several stores and sent thick black smoke spiralling into the sky. Shards of glass and debris littered the street in western Baghdad.

US soldiers riding armoured vehicles cordoned off the area and firefighters doused water on burning cars. At least 10 cars were destroyed, one of them flipped upside down.

“I was just standing here talking and then I heard two huge explosions,’’ said Humam Abdul-Hadi, who owns an electrical goods store near the bomb site. He said an ice cream restaurant had taken the brunt of the blast.
— Reuters

Manila, September 22
A Singaporean and an Indian were among the six persons arrested in the Philippines for a suspected attempt to smuggle themselves into North America, the Immigration Bureau said today.

The Singaporean, identified as Tay Choon
Hee, was held as the courier of the alleged human-smuggling operation. The other five, two Chinese, two Indonesians and an Indian, were held for possessing forged travel papers.

The two Indonesians and the Indian arrived at Manila airport yesterday from Jakarta and Singapore, respectively, and were booked to fly to Los Angeles and Vancouver, the Bureau said.

Tay and two Chinese women later arrived from Singapore en route to Los Angeles but the Bureau held all six of them.

The Indonesians had fake US visas on their passports while the Indian had a New Zealand passport under another name with fake stamps.
— AFP

BRIEFLY

Men in black
stab 14 customers
BEIJING: Two men dressed in black stormed into an Internet cafe and stabbed 14 customers in the latest in a series of indiscriminate slashings in China, state media reported on Wednesday. The two, both in their 20s, entered the “Broadband Experience” cafe in Beijing late Monday and ordered people to squat. Then they started hacking terrified patrons at random, the Beijing Times said. The drama went on for 20 horrific minutes. Eventually the two men and their accomplices walked out, leaving the customers to call police and provide elementary first aid to the injured.
— AFP

US passes DNA crime Bill
WASHINGTON: DNA testing will be expanded to help clear the innocent and snare the guilty, particularly in death-penalty cases, under a long-stalled bill passed on Tuesday by the US Senate Judiciary Committee. On an 11-7 vote, the panel sent the bipartisan measure to the full Senate where proponents are hopeful it can be approved before the Congress draws to a close this year.
— Reuters

Phone to detect bad breath
BERLIN: A German telecommunications company said on Tuesday that it was developing the first mobile phone that would alert users when their breath was bad or if they were giving off offensive smells. The phone would use a tiny chip measuring less than 1 mm to detect unpleasant odours, a spokeswoman for Siemens Mobile said.
— Reuters